Ok so after a month or two of checking out this site, I am in the process of leasing a Tl. I worked out this deal and would like some advice please:

$1500 down (includes tax, title, reg, and 1st month payment)
$440/month 42 months

'05 auto non nav

What do you guys think?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

 

A bit high for an end of year deal. On 3/31/2005,
I paid $399/48 months/tax in payments/$550 down, including 1st month, tags, etc.

 

Yeah, definitely high. The deal CPR's talking about was a promo they were running in the spring. Since the 06's are already on the streets, I would expect an 05 lease payment of less than $399.

 

with other posters. You should be below $400/month even with nav system for an '05 now; my '05 lease was $409/mo. with nav. in May in southern California.
Good luck.

 

Very high, TL w/ NAV 2005 should be under $400/mo

Try to find out Residuals and Money Factor from the dealer. The MUST tell you that information. - Then head to www.leaseguide.com

CAN'T BEAT IT!

 

Thanks guys. Appreciate the helpful feedback.

Looks like I won't settle for anything that isn't under 400 given the circumstances.

 

What are the advantages of a lease other than low monthly payments? At the end of the lease you don't own the car. I can see if you own your own business and you write off the expense, but I don't think that's the case here. Please, educate me. Thx.

 

You only pay for the depreciation (plus the built-in profit, of course) for the duration of the time you lease the vehicle.

You buy a car for 30k dollars, depreciates to 15k after 3 years, and you sell it for 15k. You're out 15k.

You lease a 30k dollar car, depreciates the same, but due to the built-in profit, you pay, say, 16k during the 3 years of leasing the vehicle. You're out 16k, compared to 15k.

Here comes the nice part -- instead of listing your car everywhere, looking for potential buyers, negoatiating, failing, back to point A, etc., etc., at which point you will probably just give up and decide to trade it in on the new car you want and get fucked on the trade-in price... OR you can simply hop in your car, drive over to the dealership and drop it off. Just like that, you're free of the car.

Acura also offers free repairs for up to 3 separate incidents/damages on their lease vehicles. The car has recurring problems? Who cares? Just as soon as you return the car, it's no longer your problem.

Of course, the trick is to carefully work out the numbers. There's a lot of calculations involved in it, and I've seen too many people get screwed over because they don't educate themselves enough. I spent countless hours researching, and I still overlooked a major part of the contract... I lucked out and didn't end up getting screwed or anything, but I could've been. Bottom line is that it's ALL about the numbers. Be prepared to sit down with a calculator and punch in numbers for a couple of hours.

Leasing has its advantages and disadvantages. One thing's for sure, though... people who keep saying "where's the equity at the end of the lease term?" or "you don't own the car in the end" simply have no clue what they are talking about. For the most part, you're only paying for the depreciation value of the vehicle which it incurs during the time you have the car. Cars depreciate EXACTLY the same whether you buy it or lease it. It's just a matter of if you're willing to pay the little extra money for the convenience that comes with leasing. And if you work it out well and get a good deal, you could end up buying it out and still don't get screwed on the deal.

FYI, my monthly payment on my '03 TL-S is $353.99 for 42 months. That's 14867.58 plus approximately 2,000 dollars in capital reduction as a part of the initial payment. So after 42 months, I would end up paying a grand total of about 17k dollars. The final negotiated price of my car including TTL was just over 32k dollars total. That's a depreciation value of 53% percent after 3 and a half years. Acura's projected residual value of my vehicle was, if I remember right, 48% after 42 months. That means I will end up having paid 1% extra for leasing, compared to buying the car and selling it after 42 months... 1% of 32,000 = 320 bucks. Whoop-dee-do. So I end up with a negative equity of 320 dollars over a period of 42 months for the convenience of leasing.

The important thing to remember is to negotiate the final price of the vehicle just as you would when you are buying the car, because the lease payments will be calculated based on that final negotiated price. Then look at the residual value and determine that it's reasonable. Some brands of cars lose more value over the same period of time, which means you will end up paying more for the same thing. For instance, leasing a 30k-dollar Chevy would command a higher monthly payment compared to leasing a 30k-dollar Acura because Acura definitely holds their resale value higher.

Then you need to look at the lease factor, which will be in the format of 0.00xx. You need to multiply this by 2400 to get the equivalent of a loan APR as when you would buy and finance a car. Of course, just as with the APR, the lease factor is negotiable, more or less.

Keep in mind that you should NEVER EVER negotiate based on monthly payment amounts. Always negotiate based on the final price of the car, lease term and lease factor. If you negotiated based solely on the monthly payment amount, then the dealership WILL meet your target amount, but by fudging with the terms such as lengthening the term of the lease. The amount may be lower per month, but you will end up paying more overall.

That's all I can think of right now. I've been up for 3 days without sleep (not even exaggerating) studying for exams and preparing project presentations, so I probably did miss some things. I'm sure others will chime in. But I think I covered most of the important aspects. Hope that helped.

 

Wow, my brain just exploded! Thanks, I feel like moron now.

 

well good example but with the original numbers provided.... The person was paying 5280 a year for 3.5 years or 18480 plus the 1500 down or 19,980 for a car that is worth 30k. I guess it depends on the amount of miles the lease is for. Many dealers are offering different prices for different miles per year that us built into the lease cost per month. Was this 440 for 12K 15K or 18K miles. ? That and can the person write this expense off.

 

Pure Adrenaline

OUTSTANDING explanation of leasing and the need to work the underlying numbers to keep from getting hosed. The auto industry tries to mystify the lease process by using unfamiliar terminology and convoluted computations to arrive at the monthly payment, but once you peel back all the mumbo jumbo (technical term), the math is actually pretty simple.

Your advice to focus on the selling price of the vehicle is right on. That, together with the residual and money factor, which tend to be less negotiable, pretty much define the lease and that quality of the deal.

Kudos!

 

Since I've done both I feel qualified to play devils advocate here.

Leasing was promoted to the consumer for 2 reasons.
1) To get people into a new car they havent saved for through low drive-off fees
2) To create a need in a defined period of time for another new car.

Also, keep in mind that there is little flexibility in getting out of a lease if a life event forces some sort of change (job loss, new child, etc) unless you agree to lease another car and wrap money owed into the new lease.

Mileage is also predefined up front so again, if you change jobs and suddenly your commute goes from 10 miles a day to 60, you are up for some huge fees at the end the of lease if you are over.

At the end of the lease guess what the dealer knows; You NEED a new car. And you likely havent saved up for a down payment while you were also making lease payments. They count on this.

These are things you need to consider. If you are disciplined about your finances and are NOT leasing to get into to something you otherwise could not afford, than for some, it will make sense. Otherwise, keep in mind some of the constraints a lease will put on you if anything changes during the term.

 

Hi i've been lurking around the forums for a while now and it is finally time for me to get my own TL! I just have one question.
How much would a lease on a 2006 model be with navi?